Mirror Mirror Trailer Looks in the Mirror, Sees a Bad Movie

The good news is that Mirror Mirror looks considerably different from its competitor Snow White and the Huntsman, to the degree that no one will confuse the two movies. The bad news is that the trailer pales in comparison in every possible way to the other movie’s trailer that debuted just last week.

Mirror Mirror stars Lily Collins as Snow White and Julia Roberts as the evil Queen. Whereas Snow White and the Huntsman appears to be a gritty, serious, battle-fueled epic, Mirror Mirror has a much family friendlier tone that appears to be goofy above all else.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look funny. While the prospect of Julia Roberts playing the evil Queen is enticing, the trailer indicates a flat performance with little spark. Most of the trailer focuses on her, but not to great effect; the dialogue is uninteresting and even clunky. Compared to, say, Helena Bonham Carter’s delicious portrayal as the Red Queen in 2010’s Alice in Wonderland (a terrible movie, by the way), Roberts doesn’t come off as very evil or zany, even though it’s clear that’s what the filmmakers are shooting for.

Beyond Roberts, the production all around seems cheap and poorly thought through. One cringe-inducing line shouted by one of the dwarves – “Snow White? Snow no!” – is a bad sign. A painful reference to Scarface (guess which line) is uttered toward the end of the trailer, too. Yikes.

Strangely, the Mirror Mirror trailer doesn’t feature a whole lot of Lily Collins, making me wonder how much this movie is going to be “the Julia Roberts show.” Of what we do see of Collins, there’s nothing to indicate she’s going to steal the show.

Despite all its flaws, Mirror Mirror does have the potential to win the box office battle with Snow White and the Huntsman. While the Kristen Stewart-starring vehicle looks exceptionally better and more interesting, it definitely skews towards more adult audiences; Mirror Mirror, on the other hand, will be more review proof and cater to families, who are known to shell out good money for bad movies as long as they entertain the kids.